Invade Their Headquarters and Destroy The Insidious Masters
It’s all too clear as a woman in the gaming community that the inequalities rampant in society seep into a male-dominated genre of entertainment. I have experienced the irritation of walking into the game store with a man and being ignored by the store workers in favor of the male, while the irony is I am the one with the buying power in most of these situations rather than my male counterpart. It boils down to either sexism or fear; I often find myself hoping this sort of treatment stems from a lack of social etiquette and understanding of the opposite sex rather than explicit dislike, distrust, or hatred. It would be more comforting if the reason for the mistreatment was simply, “They don’t know how to talk to girls.”
The articles for this week, along with the activity, hit the nail on the head in terms of representation in community. The mansplaining exercise, videos, and tip of the iceberg discussing Gamergate level harassment set the framework for the hostile reactions to women in the development of and even participation in games. The idea of designing games by and for females feels so removed from the current culture I witness in regards to the field of gaming, but Sheri Graner Ray has made great strides in creating gaming tools for young girls to get their game on.
In the article Beyond Barbie and Mortal Combat: New Perspectives on Gender and Gaming by Yasmin Kafai and associates, they discuss the dedication Graner Ray has held in paving the way for female participation in the industry with her work for Her Interactive (Kafai et al., 318). One of the more striking parts of this interview-style piece is when Graner Ray is asked about the “dollhouse” appeal of Sims for girls. Her reaction that marketing Sims as the game for girls is, “insidious,” making it so the game industry doesn’t have to really change anything — just market a product that’s similar to what all girls must want — to play dollies and make families (320). This sort of sentiment is a toxic example of erasure of an entire sex; but it doesn’t stop at gender lines.
In an online article by Khee Hoon Chan posted on Polygon.com entitled Why I’m afraid video games will continue to ‘bury its gays’ she discusses the erasure of another group; queer-identifying people. The piece heavily leans on the narrative and design of Life is Strange, a story of a possible triangle of lesbian love interests. The key term here is possible; meaning that the game hints at, but doesn’t confirm, that there are feelings of love or other desire among the trio of young women. It does a good job, says Hoon Chan, of keeping the protagonists developing outside of the orbit of a man, which is certainly a step in the right direction.
In the conclusion of the article, Hoon Chan lets readers know that in many games the frame of queerness is almost always accompanied by violence, murder, and suicide — stemming from principles and ideas from the 1930s. Long-held traditions of villainizing queerness remain today, though understated and more subtle than in previous iterations of games. We’re moving in the right direction, but representation and changing ingrained stereotypes that the industry holds will be a long and difficult process.
Though the oppression, suppression, and repression of minorities stemming from misrepresentation (or simply no representation) is real and apparent, people often don’t discuss the other side of the aisle; hyper-masculine, heterosexual male displays in games. In the final article for this week blogger and Venture Beat columnist Ryan Perez discusses the no-neck, violence-prone manly-men strewn about in every corner of the gaming world. It is a rare sight to find a male character that uses their words, brains, or anything other than brute force to solve their issues, according to Perez.
He concedes that there are games that represent males as intelligent and thoughtful, but argues that most do not. Perez contends that many games have unrealistic body standards for men, with bulging muscles and the ability to perform ridiculous feats (cough cough, looking at you, Nathan Drake), much in the same way that women’s bodies arch at unrealistic angles and their faces are overshadowed by enormous breasts (Perez). He also points out that there are often dichotomies in the masculine roles; ruthlessness or nobility, such as in Mass Effect. It is as if male (and often female) characters can only be one or another and any more depth than that the audience may not relate to or get.
The issue here is companies are using the same models and tactics that have worked for so long. Even in the era of progress, companies choose to use the tease of queer-identities, in-depth female characters who dress realistically, and non-dichotomous males to string along minorities craving characters and games they can relate to. On the whole there is obvious problems with the industry; fear or women, continuation of ridiculous stereotypes, and ignorance. The best we can do is either invade the industry and destroy it’s insidious masters, or make those same masters know our rage through the revocation of our pocket books.
